Hubble Sees Huge Crater on Asteroid Vesta

Left: This Hubble image of the asteroid Vesta was taken in May 1996 when the asteroid was 110 million miles from Earth. The asymmetry of the asteroid and "nub" and the south pole is suggested a large impact event that NASA's Dawn spacecraft later confirmed. The image was digitally restored to yield an effective scale of six miles per pixel (picture element). Center: A color-encoded elevation map of Vesta clearly shows the giant 285- mile diameter impact basin and "bull's-eye" central peak. The map was constructed from 78 Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 pictures. Surface topography was estimated by noting irregularities along the limb and at the terminator (day/night boundary) where shadows are enhanced by the low Sun angle. Right: A 3-D computer model of Vesta synthesized from Hubble topographic data. The crater's central peak is clearly visible near the pole. The surface texture on the model is artificial, and is not representative of the true brightness variations on the asteroid. Elevation features have not been exaggerated.